


Ethical Distortions

by labros



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Competitive Harry Potter, Dark Harry Potter, Dumbledore with Questionable Ethics, Harry Potter has a fake identity, M/M, Manipulative Harry Potter, Slash, Slow Burn, Slytherin Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 14:12:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18662011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/labros/pseuds/labros
Summary: After that fateful evening, Dumbledore declares all the members of the Potter family was lost.In 1991, Dustin Dursley begins his education at Hogwarts, leaving his parents and his twin to enter the Wizarding World.He would beg the Hat to be placed in Ravenclaw if he knew he had to lie through his teeth.





	Ethical Distortions

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

 

Greater good comes with a great cost.

Dumbledore learned this the hard way. He knew with a heavy heart there was a time he could intervene. He was just too broken, too weak to take responsibility. Ariana's death still heavy on his elderly heart.

So far he only had to obliviate very few people. Looking down on his students, tears fell down on his cheeks and the old men sobbed for the first time in years. Feelings of sorrow made the last strands of ginger hair on his head turn white. Lily, so prescious and so brave. James, so eager to protect those who could not defend themselves. Many had fled and built families for themselves. Not his Gryffindors.

He looked down on the baby boy on his arms, so innocent. He had a great responsibility. The boy did not deserve this responsilibity so soon as a mere baby.

Dumbledore would spare him. For now. This family had done enough, Voldemort might have not ceased for eternity but Dumbledore still had a fight in himself to hold him for a decade or two at least.

Oh, he knew how rotten the wizarding world can get. Wizards did not get a lot of celebrities, let alone archetypal heroes. They would spoil the boy.

Besides this could be a great strategy. Let Voldemort think he has won. He would be weak for a decade at least. And Dumbledore would make sure Ministry would get behind blood supremacists once for all. He did not want to drive them into their little holes, he did not care about stopping those who dwell into the dark arts really if they had kept to themselves. Alas, insanity led to terrible things. Muggleborns were young trees in a thick forest, they were the future of the forest. But they had suffered, supremacists took fiendfyre to the forest, hurting way too many. Gellert too had fallen to insanity.

Dumbledore would take responsibility this time. And this would not do. The boy would not be spoiled, not ever. He would be a normal boy, a powerful muggleborn indeed. Loved by his family. He would proceed to continue his education at Hogwarts when it was time.

Those were the reasons Dumbledore was not so merciful with the minds of the married couple. Kids were the greatest treasures on earth and Dursley's would be only luckier to receive this gift.

Harry Potter was dead. He was a true genius who was lost to the wizarding history when he was a mere baby. Sympathetic magic. Truly wondrous. A true lost. Department of Mysteris would be devasteted to know and they would be only more open to well guided influence. A mere baby took down the Dark Lord. No one would believe it and no one would know except the higher officials in the military. A sympathetic magic genius was lost to history due to insane men meddling with the dark arts.

So Dumbledore sacrificed an innocent life, the life of a two months old fawn first time in a long time. He watched as the boy's hair matched the old man's white hair. The boy could be mistaken for an albino. He could not just change the boy's appearance without risking damage and possibly ripping the magic from the baby's body. So opted for what he could do. A lighter complexion, and a different nose shape would suffice and nobody would be the wiser. A crooked nose was not the worst thing in the universe. No one would suspect of a muggleborn being actually the very Harry Potter who supposedly died on that misfortunate day. So he hoped.  
  
Many wizarding families would spent fortunes to have a son. But the boy would be spared. That blessed couple would be the Dursley's.

 

~ ~  ~ ~  ~ ~  ~ ~  ~ ~

 

Dustin Dursley was a competitive boy. So was his twin.

Vernon Dursley, who was only too proud of his boys, did what he can to encourage boys to be even more competitive. It was the corporate culture he said. You did what you had to do in the workplace and Vernon Dursley did not shy away to spend his well deserved pennies to show the boys what hard work entailed. His boss had a larger house and the big boss had even a larger house and even another small house for maids on the same grounds.

Dustin would rather have more adventures. Dudley liked his games and collectibles. Vernon did not want to have anything to do with pesky foreigners, so this left them zoo visits and a lot of console games.

Dustin did not really complain. Especially with how guilty he felt with his mother's smothering.

They were always a rather stout family. Rather obese he might say. Well, not him since he was nine. After loosing a game of street fighter with Dudley, Dudley dared Dustin to ask the girl of his dreams if she would like to kiss him. Alice was a red-headed girl with lots of freckles on her face. Dustin never seen anyone so revolted. "You are fat,"she said in a tone that was unnecesarily high in Dustin's opinion. At least Dudley told her she was only four girls away from being the ugliest girl in class and that made him feel a bit okay. But it still sucked. Girls sucked. Except for Linda Evangelista the boys whole-heartedly agreed.

Dustin would never ever make bets again unless he rigged it.

However, he was uncertain how he slimmed down after a night's sleep. When he entered the kitchen, Petunia shrieked. Vernon made no comments, just took a day off to take him to the hospital. Nothing came out of a doctor visit so in time, Vernon had resorted to saying Dustin always had a small appetite. He looked after Petunia's family after all and just look at how thin she was.

Dudley took to American football and camping and hiking. The latter made Vernon proud, the former made Vernon disgusted. Disgust did not last long when Dudley built his muscles. Dudley quickly became Vernon's favorite if he was not already.

Considering Dustin was clearly Petunia's favorite, it was more than fair. It was clear as day which parent was always around and which one was not. It made it an easy choice for Harry to opt for watching travel channels on his little television in his room. He did not mind Dudley getting more presents than him. The competitivenes between them slowly died down and even if one of them felt better, none of the twins ever showed it. They embraced it. Dustin was book smarts, although he was not even close to being a genius. He just happened to be at top four in his class with plenty of medicore grades still. But compared to Dudley who only closed to being moderately average, it was clearly no longer a competition when it came to academics. But in where Dustin failed, Dudley excelled.

Dustin guessed it helped being awkwardly tall and skinny in the end. The boys no longer spent every waking moment, Dudley kept to his athletic friends. They still played games together after dinner but Dudley made few friends and took unto role of being the protective big brother to his nerdy brother who spent much more time talking with the teachers about the nerdy things.

Dustin never heard of Petunia calling Dudley "You are special," when Dudley brought home a medal. They were both "prescious babies" but when weird things happened around Dustin, Petunia would look like Dustin had just won the Olympics and tell him he was special.

As the boys aged, Dudley had started looking up to Vernon as the cool patriarch. The tention between the boys had greatly lessened.

It still did not help how bitter he felt towards Vernon whenever he took Dudley to the work so they could go play some real good old football. "The grades did not matter, it is a big fish eats the little fish, better be the big fish in the company culture," said Vernon to Dudley as the three was scrolling in the grocery isle. If Alexander the Great had expanded his empire so much, that was fine. Dudley could be that. A famous athlete or a good shark at the corporate culture. He would be great like Marcus Aurelius. He would do better in school and maybe become a doctor or a dentist. Vernon was always bitter about dentist bills and that only meant something good for the dentist. That was a good shark.

"We are home honey! I got the... Who is this?" Dustin took a peak in to see a man in black looking at them with absolute distain.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Severus Snape was not a social man. When the old man complained about his never-ending meetings, he did not know what he came over him to agree about doing the 'introducing."

This was Minerva's job for a reason.

That said, the older woman was exhausted and she asked him seven days worth of sleeping potions to get well-deserved rest after campaigning in rural parts of Scotland where still few isolated magical households existed.

So Severus volunteered himself in a way? At least he thought so before realizing he was making a visit to one of his childhood 'friends' and if Dumbledore thought this would effect how he acted around Muggleborn students in any way, he was wrong.

He would go through with this, he would keep this word. He would then wonder about what the senile man was trying to plot in his private quarters.

Petunia was too enthusiastic about learning one of his spawn was indeed a wizard.

Severus was not too enthusiastic about laying his eyes on an obese looking man. The man had dark hair contrasting his pink face and bright blue eyes lost in his fat obscure face.

And a chubby child who seemed to be following on his father's steps. The same dirty blond hair as Petunia only he had inherited his father's eyes instead of Petunia's icey glaze.

The only reason he did not miss out on the lanky child was because he simply stuck out. He was the only one wearing dark sunglasses and a hat on a rather cloudy day. "Mom?" he questioned and Severus has seen the braces.

"So Dustin Dursley." Both kids were a lost cause. Draco would make sure to bully them.

"Is my son in trouble?" Vernon has said in a hurried tone. "If so I can assure you Dustin does not do trouble. This should be a mistake."

"Oh, Dustin!" Petunia yanked the skinny kid towards a hug. "You are a wizard baby. I always knew you were magical, Dusty-kins!"

Severus has watched impassively as Petunia took down the kid's hat, sunglasses and then circling him to take his jacket as the kid seemed looked just right at home as his mother manhandled him like a two years old.

Severus was wrong. If the kid was unable to undress himself then even the noble lions would eat this kid alive at Hogwarts. For his sake, the boy should have turn out to be a Hufflepuff.

As the mother hen sat down crying his balls out and confused husband taking on his wife's side protectively, he noticed the blond boy do the same but getting rebuffed as Dustin moved a step forward causing the other boy to rest a hand on his brother's shoulder instead.

"What is she talking about?"

Severus had managed to take a closer look on the kid instead. Memories of Lily Evans in a field of flowers under the sun filled his mind. He quickly dismissed the memories. The kid had shared Evans genetics. Not the same coloring as Lily. His eyes looked like the color of grass just like Lily's did under the sun but hers was a more saturated rich color. His hair coarse and a strawberry blonde. Not the fiery crown Lily held.

He did not like muggleborns but two wizards born in the family only meant an affair, a lost connection to the wizarding world closer than most muggleborns. Severus would not minded if they assimilated and if he believed they were the result of squibs and purebloods intermingling with muggles but it was just rare and too random. Unless there was a squib they could trace, muggleborn wizards did not born into the same family twice.

The kid huffed and went over to his mother's side.

"I will be escorting the kid to Diagon Alley tomorrow at 3 p.m. I am sure you are capable of explaining after... this emotional moment, Petunia."

"Yeah sure, of course. Did you t-take your letter Dustin?"

At that Dustin seemed to notice his presence and the letter in his hand.

"Is that to me?"

"Yes Mr. Dursley. It is your letter. You will address me as sir. I have not managed," he took a side look at Petunia with distain, "to introduce myself. I am Professor Snape. I teach potions at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in which every sensible wizard and witch priviliged enough to do so attends."

"Is that... Are you a recruiter for some entertainment industry?" At least the kid took his letter and Severus took the liberty to snap.

"I will be here tomorrow at 3 p.m, Mr. Dursley. I am sure your mother can explain... the necessitities as her sister also attended the wizarding school. I assume she remembers the every detail she has ever heard from head to toe."

Severus would rather not introduce muggleborns and now he knew it was in their best interest for him to not do so.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

"Dustin Dursley."

Zacharias Smith gave him a nervous smile as Dustin walked forth. As the sorting hat was put into his hat by a stern witch, he could not help but wish to not be in Gryffindor. Professor McGonagall was the complete opposite image of his mother.

"Right." Dustin heard a voice in his ears? His mind? "Hello?" Did the hat hear him? Was it a person transformed into a hat? Or a person controlling the hat and reading his thoughts?

"Yes. No. No. Not Ravenclaw then." Dustin felt a bit offended at that but he "Uh, shush. You have too much ambition for a raven, boy. And enough power, oh why yes. I know where to put you..."

"Slytherin!" The hat announced and he received a polite clap from the Slytherin table.

He felt even more nervous walking towards the Slytherin table with calculating eyes staring him down. Or he only just grasped how nervous he was feeling about this world.

He almost wanted to go back and yell at the hat to put him to Ravenclaw where he might rationalize things. Dustin hated to be in this unknown territory. But he was a wizard and that was that.

"Dursley, huh?" A girl simply stated who reminded him too much of his father. She had dark hair and piercing blue eyes although her eyes did not help her case when she was so fat. Dustin felt shame immediately at that thought, remembering the humiliation he once received as a fat boy. Still, he took a sit on the other side of the table next to the other girl only to regret it when he was faced with a fat boy's hostile eyes.

He remembered Zacharias schooling him on why the family matters and boasting about being descended from Helga Hufflepuff back on the train. Had the wizarding world have an aristocracy the way there was another royal British class. Did they still have some power over the common folk, he wondered to himself.

"Tracey Davis," said the girl to his right. "Half-blood." Harry was not even sure what it meant but he vaguely remembered a boy boasting about being related to a minor house and his uncle being knighted by the queen herself.

"Dustin Dursley," he said with a polite smile as he extended his hand. "Same. Half-blood." Whatever that means, he easily lied. Remembering the time a boy in his school had succesfully lying about being half french with none the wiser until they had a french transfer. By then, the boy had already gained new friends by being 'more interesting.' Once they were bonded, they would tease him about lying once in a while but the boy had already reapted the social benefits of being more exotic.

Tracey returned Dustin a civil smile at that but she was more pleased when Daphne Greengrass took a one look at the girl introducing herself to be Millicent Bullstrode and took into sitting next to Tracey.

Dustin felt invisible after that and the feast began. He did not think he could stomach anything with how anxious he was feeling. But he placed some food into his if only to blend in with the rest of the crowd.

He made few observations and that was Slytherin was not the most friendly place to be in. Daphne and Pansy seemed content with bickering at each other. Boys were constantly teasing except for Theodore and Draco. Theodore Nott was simply a silent boy. Draco Malfoy made pitiful attempts with socializing but all he received was polite nodes and "uh-um"s. The kid's father could be a duke or something for all Dustin understood.

His social standing did not seem to be great as a half blood but it was better than those mudbloods sitting at Gryffindor table. By the time first years had to follow their prefects to their common rooms, Dustin became quite good at sneering while spewing the word mudblood. His father Vernon Dursley had one thing to bond over with guys at the pub and that was shitting on dippers. Dippers meaning Liverpool fans. Dursley had come to insult anyone by calling them dippers after Vernon took them to the bar and even let them sip some beer.

He went to bed earlier than usual. As Dustin said his goodnights to his dorm mates, he closed his curtains and let his anxiety roam. He never had to lie about himself to a bunch of people on the first day he met them.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Appearantly, not many knew about Lily Potter's blood status.

"Imagine how the guy would turn up to be!" Theodore pretty much was yelling out of excitement at this point.

"Or the girl," said Daphne dismissively.

"It had to be James Potter! He was a pureblood man."

"Or it was Lily." Pansy added.

"My mother said the only reason she remembers Lily was because she had great red hair unlike those Weasleys. But everybody remembers James."

It was a rare moment that Daphne and Pansy stood aside together with Draco, only because Theodore's ranting about Quidditch took too long and in the end there was only five of them left to argue. Dustin looked into the depts of the lake. Even Crabbe and Goyle left Draco's side, so if he blew his cover he could just drown himself in the lake. He took a mental note to ask for classes from Dudley to teach him how to lie better. Or rather not feel paranoid about it. Dudley always seemed careless as it gets.

"Lily Potter was actually my aunt." At that Daphne moved closer to his side and Dustin tried not to flush.

"Oh. Now I think about it, we never asked you about your family. What was her maiden name again?"

"Yeah, um. It is Evans. It is a muggle surname. My grandfather is a muggle. My mother never attended Hogwarts, so none of your parents will know her. She always wanted to. My mother says Lily was a talented witch."

"And your grandmother? You told us you were a halfblood," said Draco as he lowered his eyes maliciously.

"I-I can't." Dustin told them giving them a pointy look as he nervously started picking at his chin. Untrusting eyes pierced into him and Dustin added a little bit of fear in his eyes as he nervously scanned his left and his right as he suspected someone would hear him.

"Uh." Pansy was first to react as if she came into a realisation. "So is your mother a squib then? Does she have magic?"

"I am not sure. She loves magic though. And she always heals fast." That her mother did. And Dustin had not necessarily said yes or no.

"You know what," Theodore cleared his throat. "I get muggleborns and marrying into halfbloods to let in some fresh blood but marrying muggles are just irresponsible! Honestly who in his right mind would take such a risk!"

"That makes you a barely quarterblood but I guess you are still a halfblood technically," Draco sneered. When Dustin thought about Draco, he thought of smugness he radiated in Potions and when he talked about his father. Draco thought everyone was inferior. But this was a clear indication his place in the hierarchy was just floored.

He could never challenge the others. They were still too civil. But he could challenge Draco, it was clear the boy was already lost to him as an alliance. He remembered fondly of competing with Dudley, and then when he surpassed Dudley, he began competing with the other boys. Dustin became top of the class in Mathematics only to win against Timothy the science nerd back home. Competing with girls just did not motivate him so while as he kept being better than every boy in the school, studying further more to become top of his class never motivated him.

His lesser status was established and he dodged a bullet by not revealing indeed both of his parents were muggles, although the conservation made him think maybe his mother had a little magic in her.

It was decided. Dustin would surpass Draco first. Then all the boys. And then maybe he would even try at besting Granger.

Dustin taken into going to Snape's dungeon in office hours then. The men looked offended at first when he asked what he could do better and just told him to a particular book in the library. Dustin complied and as his gradings went up, Professor Snape started to look less offended when he showed up. Looking like he was an orphaned poor boy when Snape spat his mistakes did nothing to help. After two weeks of harassing, Professor told him to slice some flobberworms since any awful work would do in more "crude" potions but still gave him a rating from a sneer to not being impressed to a raised eyebrow.

By the time he got Professor Snape to say a simple "good." after he crushed some weird beans for him, his potions work had greatly improved. Potion humes did nothing good for his hair and that led Draco to being noisy and discovering how Dustin spent his time in Snape's dungeon and demanded to be included.

He was kicked out and told to never seek Professor Snape unless it was an emergency but at least his potion now matched Draco's he thought triumphly.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Dumbledore was not a murderer.

He had brought down two dark lords now. If he did not kill the last one, he was not going to start now.

Both the foolish man and Voldemort would sleep and he had the perfect plan for it.

Mermish was more useful than people would have guessed, especially if you were the headmaster of Hogwarts.

In the dark waters under the The Great Lake now laid a glass coffin that contained the body of Quirrell and the soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle, stucked and unconscious as the body of his host.

The careful eyes of hundreds would watch the coffin in the case of something going wrong.

On Tuesdays Dumbledore wore his yellow socks crocheted with red angry eyes. It seemed fitting for the occasion and he did not forget to restock the coffin with the modified dreamless potion dozing the unfortunate man body every hour. Not that even the Dark Lord could have manage to escape the glass coffin.

French sometimes referred to sleep as "Le petite mort." The saying came to be for a reason. The light warlocks of French had to figure a way to eliminate their problems. They were not barbaric and they made great efforts to not taint their souls by killing another being.

It just happened the dream world was a gateway for soul to peacefully pass over. The body would die on his own after being a soulless shell for a several months.

Peaceful was the key and Dumbledore was looking forward to anonymously report his also anonymous friends to how much it would take for the soul to finally pass over when given the dreamless potion. His friends told him dreams was a key role in achieving this.

Alas, Dumbledore had more than enough patience.

**Author's Note:**

> I have made a decision to skip the first year in the first chapter as I have more meaningful plans for the second.
> 
> The last time I wrote fanfiction was when I was 13. Ten years passed since then. Please do review!


End file.
